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MARQUETTE — It was ultimately a successful day for the Marquette Senior High School track and field teams with both victorious at home in their MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 regional meet on Thursday afternoon.

In this qualifying meet for the U.P. Finals to be held in Kingsford in exactly two weeks on June 4, the MSHS boys left no doubt from the get-go, winning by a whopping 61 points over runner-up Gladstone.

The girls’ meet came down to the final event as the Redettes held off Sault Ste. Marie by five points.

Marquette's Baux Truckey, center, outruns teammate Julia Ott, right, for the title in the girls' 100-meter dash at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 regional track and field meet held at the MSHS track on Thursday. (Journal photo by Travis Nelson)

Gladstone and Sault Ste. Marie were joined by Escanaba and Menominee to round out the meet.

In the boys meet, the Redmen won 11 of 17 events, leaving no chance for the rest of the field to catch up.

Three MSHS boys were multiple winners, led by Owen Beauchamp with three. He won the 100- and 200-meter dash titles while being the opening leg of the winning 400 relay with Kyler Sager, Trevor Simon and Austin Ridl.

If your last name was VanderSchaaf, you were probably winning an event. Brothers Colin and Carson each won twice for the Redmen.

Colin took home an individual title in the 800, while he was also the anchor leg of Marquette’s 1,600 relay with Kai Chouinard, Jacob MacPhee and Cullen Papin.

Marquette's Julia Ott, left, hands off the baton to teammate Siena Lingle during a girls relay at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 regional track and field meet held at the MSHS track on Thursday. (Journal photo by Travis Nelson)

Carson won individual titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 to help Marquette conquer the distances, too.

“We’ve been training really hard, and it’s really fun to see everything pay off,” Colin VanderSchaaf said. “Everyone was getting personal records, and seeing them celebrating encourages you to run faster, too.”

Cayden Dahlin’s 128-foot, 4-inch discus throw and Tyranon Dahlin’s 20-3.5 long jump leap won two field events for MSHS. The Redmen also swept both hurdles races, with Sam Markey taking the 110 high hurdles and Lamb Ngafeeson the 300 intermediate hurdles.

“I’ve been hurdling a long time, so usually it comes down to drilling steps into your head so that you can be smooth and efficient,” Markey said. “That definitely helped me out today.”

Among the half-dozen events not won by Marquette, Menominee was triumphant in four of them. Eric Brown won the 400 while Brady Schultz took the high jump at 6-7. Both were also a part of Menominee’s winning 800 relay with Aidan Bellisle and Dawson Allgeyer. Teammate Kaeden Calcari added a win in the shot put with a heave of 42-3.

Escanaba and Sault Ste. Marie had one win apiece. The Eskymos’ 3,200 relay of Nicholas Hamlin, Julian Cashen, Daniel Smith and Ben Smith picked up a victory, while the Blue Devils’ Jackson Gervasio won the pole vault by clearing a height of 11-0.

“The guys are really coming in together, I’m really proud of the attitude and the effort that they’ve had all season,” Marquette coach Derek Marr said. “We talked the first day about 10-out-of-10 attitude and 10-out-of-10 effort, and if we can give that, we can hold our heads up high and we can be proud of the performances that come from that.

“Across the board, whether we’re talking about our field events, our sprinters, our jumpers, our distance events, we really put a lot of people through to the (U.P.) finals.”

The girls’ meet was much closer before Marquette also prevailed. The Redettes won six events, led by Baux Truckey. She was a quadruple winner with individual victories in the 100 and 200 as she also ran the anchor leg in the 400 and 800 relays.

The winning 400 team also included Ava Jones, Bella Coleman and Siena Lingle, while the 800 relay had Jones, Lingle and Julia Ott.

Ott also won the high jump at 5-0, while Tessa Bruns came out on top in the 1,600.

“It’s good to get points for the team, and it’s just fun to get those accomplishments,” Truckey said. “I try to get my times as low as I can, and I’m running with good girls that really push me hard, so we really do good together.”

Sault Ste. Marie stayed neck-and-neck with Marquette the entire way, tasting its own success. The Blue Devils won five times, led by double winner Cassandra Gallagher. She took the 3,200 and was the first leg of the 3,200 relay that included Isabella DeWildt, Dayna Szabo and Abigail Walther.

The Sault also swept the hurdles, as Annabelle Fazzari won the 110 and Claire Erickson the 300. In field events, the Blue Devils’ lone winner was Ava Donmyer in shot put with a put of 31-1.

Escanaba came in third, giving the top two teams a battle. The Eskymos also finished by winning five events, led by Ciara Ostrenga as a triple winner. She won the 400 and 800 and joined Bailey Barron, Sofia Bazzico and Mari Bink in the 1,600 relay victory.

EHS also won two field events with Bink, who took the long jump, and Allison Korpi, who won discus.

Gladstone’s lone victory came when Emily Siebert won the pole vault.

With a meet so well contested and down to the wire, it took a total team effort for the Redettes to gut it out.

“I’m just so proud of my girls,” Marquette coach Natalie Messano said. “They all just ran their hearts out today, we had so many personal records. Everybody knew that they had to give their all, and I’m so proud. Everyone just really stepped up today.”

Marquette’s boys and girls teams return to action at 3:30 p.m. Thursday when they host the Great Northern Conference meet.

Travis Nelson can be reached by email at tnelson@miningjournal.net.